Katowice (German: Kattowitz, from March 1953 to October 1956 -
Stalinogród) - a city with poviat rights in Poland, the seat of the
Silesian Voivodeship, the main center of the Upper Silesian Industrial
District, the largest city in the Upper Silesian conurbation in terms of
population, the seat of the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis, the
largest city in Upper Silesia in terms of population and area.
The beginnings of Katowice date back to the 16th century, when it was an
agricultural and forging center, and its rapid development began in the
mid-19th century with the development of industry and the introduction
of a railway line to the city. It was granted city rights on September
11, 1865, after which it developed rapidly. With 282,755 inhabitants in
December 2021, it was the 11th city in the country in terms of
population and 12th in terms of area (164.64 km²).
Located on the
route of the main national and international routes, both road and rail.
The Katowice-Pyrzowice international airport operates in Pyrzowice. They
are an important economic center on a national scale, being a commercial
and service center with a significant share of production activity. They
are also a center of concentration of specialist medical services,
academic, cultural and sports functions. In the ranking published by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network, Katowice was classified
in the fifth category (sufficiency level cities) of cities of global
importance.
Katowice, according to Jerzy Kondracki's physico-geographic division,
is largely located in the Wyżyna Katowicka mesoregion (341.13), with the
exception of the southern part of the Murcki district. This mesoregion
is the southern part of the Silesian Upland, which is part of the
Silesian-Cracow Upland sub-province. Geologically, the city is located
in the Devonian-Carboniferous Upper Silesian sinkhole. The city lies on
the border of the watersheds of the Vistula and the Oder.
Administratively, the city is located in the central part of the
Silesian Voivodeship, in the Katowice subregion, and is the largest city
in the Upper Silesian conurbation. Katowice is located in the eastern
part of Upper Silesia. In the years 1950-1953, 1956-1975 and 1975-1998,
the city was administratively the capital of the large and small
Katowice Voivodeship, and in the years 1922-1939, 1945-1950 and since
1999 the capital of the Silesian Voivodeship.
Katowice borders Chorzów, Siemianowice Śląskie and Czeladź from the
north, Sosnowiec and Mysłowice from the east, Lędziny and Tychy from the
south, and Mikołów and Ruda Śląska from the west.
Katowice, along with Łódź and Gdynia, belongs to the group of Polish
cities whose centers do not originate from the medieval charter city.
Styles such as Gothic, Renaissance or Baroque are therefore not
represented in it. The urban layout of the city was created as a result
of the expansion and connection of individual villages and working-class
housing estates during the rapid development in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
The city center was shaped in the mid-nineteenth
century, which was built more closely after 1880. The buildings erected
at that time have an eclectic decoration (mostly neo-renaissance and
neo-baroque) with later elements of the Art Nouveau style. At the end of
the 19th century, it was considered little Paris.
The modernist
quarter of the southern part of downtown Katowice, created after the
creation of the Silesian Voivodeship in 1922, is one of the most
interesting examples of interwar functionalism and international style
in the country. The buildings in Katowice are inspired by the
architecture of Bauhaus, De Stijl or Le Corbusier's projects. The
architecture of Katowice in the interwar years, despite the original
assumptions assuming unification and standardization, was characterized
by great diversity and individualism. At that time, the provincial
authorities had a large share in investments, which also attracted
private and church investors. The most impressive buildings erected in
this period include the building of the Silesian Parliament, built in
the years 1924-1929, and the Cathedral of Christ the King, whose
construction began in 1927 and was completed after the war (in 1956).
After World War II, at the end of the 1940s, the doctrine of
socialist realism was imposed on the city's architecture, emphasizing
Polish values. An example is the Youth Palace (built 1948-1951) and the
former House of Trade Unions (built 1955). Later, attempts were made to
create a new concept of the city center, towards the north. These works
were carried out in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. House of the Silesian
Press, "Skarbek" Department Store, Super Unit and the Spodek sports and
entertainment hall. Among the residential investments, the most valuable
are Osiedle Tysiąclecia and Osiedle Walentego Roździeńskiego.
After 1989, the architecture of Katowice focused on the aesthetics of
postmodernism taken from Western Europe, but later on functionalism,
taking into account avant-garde materials, innovative construction
solutions and a reference to tradition. Due to the cultural development
of the city, at the end of the 1990s, a new seat of the Silesian Library
was established, and in the first half of the 21st century, the Culture
Zone, which houses the seat of the National Polish Radio Symphony
Orchestra (built 2010-2014), the Silesian Museum ( building 2011-2015)
and the International Congress Center (building 2011-2015). In the years
2002-2003, the tallest building in Katowice - Altus - was built, and in
2005, the Silesia City Center shopping and entertainment center was
built on the site of the Gottwald mine. Many new office and service
buildings as well as public utility buildings, especially academic ones
(including the Scientific Information Center and the Academic Library
opened in 2012), were also built.
The urban layout of Katowice, due to the young age of the city, shows
heterogeneity resulting from the different genesis and administrative
separateness of the settlements that were incorporated into Katowice
along with subsequent stages of their development. Neighboring
districts, incorporated in 1924, have the strongest connection with
Śródmieście. A number of separate settlements and colonies of various
origins have developed in individual units. The current shape of
Katowice has developed in four development phases:
Early urban phase
(1840s-1880s) - is associated with the industrialization of the present
districts of Katowice, the construction of a railway line to Katowice
and the transfer of the management of Thiele-Winckler's estate to
Katowice; At that time, the urban layout of the present Śródmieście was
marked out on the axis: Plac Wolności - Rynek - Plac Bl. Fr. Emil
Szramek and the streets: Dworcowa - Mariacka; establishment of patronage
districts next to industrial plants, including Giszowiec and
Nikiszowiec.
The phase of development and territorial expansion in
the interwar years - is associated with granting Katowice the status of
the capital of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship; in this period, the
neighboring districts were incorporated into Katowice, and in the
southern Śródmieście, e.g. the buildings of the Silesian Parliament, the
Silesian Museum (unfinished, demolished by the Germans), the Cathedral
of Christ the King (completed after World War II) and numerous modern
residential buildings.
Post-war phase (1945–1989) – reconstruction
and further spatial development of the city; during this period, the
Rondo-Rynek zone was reconstructed (including the construction of the
"Spodek" sports and entertainment hall and new high-rise buildings), new
housing estates were built (including the Tysiąclecia, Paderewskiego,
Roździeńskiego, Odrodzenia and Witosa housing estates), public
facilities (Pałac Młodych) , a new railway station building, the Wedding
Palace) and large shopping centers ("Zenit", "Skarbek").
The modern
phase (since the 1990s) - economic transformations have led to changes
in the economic system of Katowice (including the liquidation of mines,
steelworks and other burdensome plants); the city's road system was
reconstructed (including the construction of the Drogowa Trasa
Średnicowa and the A4 motorway), and a number of city revitalization
processes were carried out (e.g. the creation of the Culture Zone on the
premises of the former KWK Katowice coal mine); construction of new
commercial, service and office facilities (e.g. Altus, Chorzowska 50 and
industrial parks); further urban development of the city proceeds in
southern directions due to numerous development investments.
residential development areas - 12%
communication and transport
areas - 12.5%
industrial areas - 8.5%
landscaped green areas –
7.5%
forests and other land - 55%
wasteland - 4.5%
There are
almost 66 km² of forests within Katowice. These forests are protected
The oldest building in Katowice that still exists today is the wooden
church of St. Michael the Archangel from the 16th century in Brynów.
Apart from it, there are several dozen residential buildings from the
19th and early 20th centuries, including the unique housing estates:
Nikiszowiec and Giszowiec. There are also several palaces here,
including the Goldstein Palace and the palace in Załęże, as well as
several historic churches, such as St. Mary's Church, the Garrison
Church, the Cathedral of Christ the King (the largest cathedral in the
country), a basilica with a Franciscan monastery with an original
calvary in the modernist style and an Evangelical church Resurrection of
the Lord - the oldest stone sacral building in the city. Skyscraper
built in 1929–1930 at ul. Żwirki i Wigury 15 is an example of modernist
architecture that fills the southern quarter of the city center.
Opposite the building of the Silesian Parliament, there is a monument to
Marshal Józef Piłsudski, funded by contributions from the inhabitants of
the province. Silesian and commissioned in 1936 from the Croatian
sculptor Antun Augustinčić. It was made in the years 1937–1939. Due to
the outbreak of war and subsequent political conditions, the monument
was brought to Poland only in 1991. In 1998, a pedestal was made and the
monument was placed in its current location, on Bolesława Chrobry
Square. The design of the square with the pedestal, designed by Alina
Borowczak-Grzybowska and Andrzej Grzybowski, was awarded the title of
the Best Public Space of the Silesian Voivodeship in 2001.
In
addition to monuments in Katowice, there are many non-historic tourist
attractions, e.g. Monument to the Silesian Insurgents (the largest
monument in the country), parachute tower (the only existing parachute
tower in Poland), Spodek (an entertainment hall put into use in 1971
with an architecturally interesting roof designed by engineer Wacław
Zalewski, held in place with steel cables in accordance with the
principles of tensegrity), a nativity scene in the Basilica of St. King
Louis and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the largest
Christmas crib in Europe).
Katowice is a large cultural center where in 2012 there were 9
cultural institutions entered into the register of the Minister of
Culture and National Heritage and the Silesian Voivodeship, and 14
municipal cultural institutions. These are institutions of an artistic,
scientific and research nature, as well as organizing and supporting
cultural life. The cultural institution entered in the register of the
Minister of Culture is the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in
Katowice, which has been operating in the city since 1945, with its seat
at 1 Wojciech Kilar Square. new seat at 1 Tadeusza Dobrowolski Street),
the Silesian Library (founded in 1922; pl. Rady Europa 1); Silesian
Philharmonic (operating since 1945; ul. Sokolska 2), Film Institution
"Silesia-Film" (functioning in the field of cinematography; it manages,
among others, the Film Art Centre, Cinema Światowit and Kinoteatr
Rialto; ul. Górnicza 5), Institution of Culture Ars Cameralis Silesiae
Superioris (promotes and presents valuable phenomena in culture and art;
7 Ligonia Street), Regional Cultural Center (conducts classes promoting
amateur own creativity, and also works in the protection of tradition
and cultural heritage; 7 Ligonia Street) , the Silesian Center of
Cultural Heritage (a research institution; ul. Ligonia 7) and the
Silesian Theater Stanisław Wyspiański (the largest theater stage in the
Silesian Voivodeship; it has been operating since 1907; ul. Rynek 2).
Among the cultural institutions of the City of Katowice, apart from
five cultural houses (Koszutka, Ligota, Południe, Szopienice-Giszowiec
and Zawodzie), there are also: Gallery of Contemporary Art of the Bureau
of Artistic Exhibitions, Katowice City of Gardens - Institution of
Culture. Krystyna Bochenek (Sejm Śląski Square 2), the Katowice History
Museum and the Ateneum Silesian Puppet and Actor Theatre.
The
cyclical Rawa Blues Festival, Departures, Mayday Festival, Nowa Muzyka
Festival, Silesian Jazz Festival, series: JaZZ and around, as well as
OFF Festival and dozens of other concerts annually attract hundreds of
thousands of music fans from all over the world to Katowice parks,
cultural institutions and Spodek in Katowice , the most characteristic
concert hall in Poland.
The city's holiday is September 11, which
is the anniversary of obtaining city rights.
The cultural
development of the city took place only after 1922, due to the
establishment of the city as the capital of the Silesian Voivodeship
with autonomy. Thanks to the Acts of the Silesian Parliament,
educational and cultural facilities were created, e.g. Silesian Museum.
Due to the small destruction of the city during World War II, most of
the cultural centers were created in place of the existing German ones.
Until 1939, several cinemas and theaters were opened in the city, and 17
magazine titles were registered. Katowice was a candidate for the title
of European Capital of Culture in 2016. Katowice's candidature,
conducted under the slogan City of Gardens, led to a significant
cultural revival of the city associated mainly with industry.
Musical culture in Katowice has been developing to a greater extent
since the post-war years, while in the interwar years musical activity
was conducted by the Music Society, organizing musical performances by
soloists and chamber ensembles.
In post-war Katowice, thanks to
the composers Bolesław Szabelski and Bolesław Woytowicz, a Silesian
school of composers was established, which includes such composers as
Ryszard Gabryś, Aleksander Glinkowski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Jan
Wincenty Hawel, Wojciech Kilar and Witold Szalonek. Almost all of them
have lived and worked in this city all their lives. An important place
in Polish musical life was also occupied by the next generation of
composers: Eugeniusz Knapik, Andrzej Krzanowski and Aleksander Lasoń.
Katowice is home to the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and
the country's best Academy of Music. Hip-hop groups: Kaliber 44 and
Paktofonika also come from Katowice.
The following groups and
bands come from Katowice, and the following music clubs operate in
Katowice:
"Camerata Silesia" - the Singers' Ensemble of the City of
Katowice
A Door Called A Horse
Energy 2000
The Orange Club
mayday
Silesian Philharmonic
Silesian stage
Silesian Quartet
GuGalander
Jazz Club Hypnosis
Caliber 44
Corner
End of the
world
Mega Club
Old Timers Garage
National Polish Radio
Symphony Orchestra former Great Polish Radio and Television Symphony
Orchestra (WOSPRiT)
Mixed Choir "OGNIWO"
ABSOLUTE Choir
Mixed
Choir at the Cathedral of St. Christ the King
choir st. Gregory the
Great at the Basilica of the OO. Franciscans in Katowice Panewniki
Liturgical Schola of the Panewniki Basilica
sunny
Paktofonika
Pocahontas
Transformation
Choir of the Silesian Theological
Seminary
Tew
Miuosh
Choir of the University of Economics in
Katowice
The theater in Katowice functioned from 1897, when the Municipal
Theater was opened. In 1922, it was transformed into the Polish Theatre,
named in 1937 for them. Stanisław Wyspiański. In the 1936/37 season, the
theater was used by 160,000 people. viewers.
In the years of the
People's Republic of Poland, Katowice had a poorly developed culture, of
which the theater was the best performing cultural institution. In 1970,
the Silesian Theater hosted 598 performances attended by 196,096
spectators. At that time, the theater had a local character. In
addition, there was the Silesian Puppet and Actor Theater Ateneum,
founded in 1945.
As of 2014, the following theaters and theater
groups operate in Katowice:
Silesian Theatre
Athenaeum Theatre
Korez Theatre
Cogitatur Theatre
Locus Theater
Domisol Theatre
Games and People Theatre
Rialto Cinema Theatre
Theater Without a
Stage
GuGalander Theatre
female dog Off Alternative Theatre
Author's Batis Theatre
Mumio (cabaret and theater group)
Impressive Theater of the Young Viewer
GART Theater
Theater of
Games and People The Gardens of the Theater Association
Nienażarty
Student Theatre
Studio K Theater
Iron Theatre
The art of film in Katowice was already functioning before World War
I. In the interwar years, it experienced significant development,
because in 1932 there were 9 sound-enabled "light theaters" in the city
(all privately owned), with an average of 555 seats. They were all
located in the very center of the city. The largest of them was "Rialto"
(1050 seats), owned by Bernard Kochman and Marcin Tichauer. A number of
cinemas were also located in neighboring towns, today being districts of
Katowice, such as Szopienice, Załęże or Zawodzie[180]. In 1938, there
were 11 cinema theaters in Katowice, mostly large ones. The average rate
of cinema attendance per capita in 1938 was 12.7 and was much higher
than, for example, in Warsaw (11.4) and Kraków (10.4). In 1972, there
were 22 cinemas in Katowice with a total of 11,200 seats. places, which
gave one of the highest ratios in Poland per capita
The following
cinemas operate in Katowice (2017):
Cinema City – Point 44 (13
screens, including the IMAX room)
Cinema City – Silesia City Center
(13 screens)
Helios (later Planet Cinema) – Altus (9 screens, later
6) (defunct)
Rialto Cinema Theater (1 screen)
Helios – Galeria
Libero
Światowid Cinema (2 screens)
Kosmos Cinema (2 screens)
Multikino – Galeria Katowicka (10 screens)
Museum activity in Katowice has been operating since 1929, when the
Silesian Parliament formally established the Silesian Museum. In 1924,
the Society of the Museum of the Silesian Land was established, whose
task was to collect memorabilia of material and spiritual culture
produced mainly in Upper Silesia. In 1930, the first exhibitions of the
Polish painting gallery were made available. After World War II, the
Silesian Museum was restituted only in 1984, while the first museum
opened after World War II was the Katowice History Museum. In 1985, the
Archdiocesan Museum was opened, gathering collections of sacred art.
As of 2014, the following museums operate in Katowice:
Silesian
Museum
Katowice History Museum
Museum of the History of Computers
and Information Technology
Archdiocesan Museum
Missionary Museum
of Franciscans
Museum of Polish Law and Lawyers
Data Storage
Museum
Automotive Museum
Museum of the Smallest Books in the World
by Zygmunt Szkocny
Scouting Ethnographic Museum
Silesian Chamber
Center of Polish Scenography
Silesian Center of Cultural Heritage
Silesian Center of Freedom and Solidarity
Hans Kloss Museum (defunct)
By plane
Katowice International Airport (IATA: KTW) in Pyrzowice
is approximately 20km from the city center along the A1 motorway. It is
served from Frankfurt, Frankfurt/Hahn, Dortmund and Munich, among
others. Another international airport is Kraków Airport (IATA: KRK)
located in front of Kraków and accessible via the A4 motorway.
By
train
Katowice railway station is a stop for national and
international long-distance trains, as well as for regional traffic.
There are daily direct trains from Berlin to Katowice, and since 2014
there has also been a bus connection between the two cities. Trains from
Vienna to Warsaw (3 daily) all stop in Katowice.
In the street
From Northern Germany, the best way to drive by car is via the border
crossings at Görlitz and Forst and then the Autostrada A4 motorway to
the Upper Silesian industrial area. Part of this highway is toll road.
From Austria/Southern Germany, it is best to drive via Brno and Ostrava
(Mährisch Ostrava) on the Autostrada A1 motorway to Gliwice, from there
via the A4 motorway to Katowice.
In Katowice itself and in the surrounding industrial area there is a dense network of trams and local trains. The streets are inner city unfortunately z. T. not in the best condition.
Pursuant to Resolution No. XLVI/449/97 of the Katowice City Council
of September 29, 1997, Katowice is divided into 22 auxiliary units of
the city. They are grouped in five groups of districts:
I. A
complex of downtown districts
1. Downtown
4.
Paderewskiego-Muchowiec housing estate
12. T-shirt
13. Bogucice
II. Northern Districts
7. Załęże
8. Witos estate
9. Osiedle
Tysiąclecia
10. Oak
11. Wełnowiec-Józefowiec
III. Western
Districts
2. Załęska Hałda-Brynów
5. Brynów-Zgrznioka Housing
Estate
6. Ligota-Paewniki
IV. Eastern districts complex
3.
Profession
14. Dąbrówka Mała
15. Szopienice-Burowiec
16.
Janow-Nikiszowiec
17. Giszowiec
V. Complex of southern
districts
18. Murcki
19. Piotrowice-Ochojec
20. Užupis
21.
Grim Reaper
22. Podlasie
For many years, these districts were
largely separate settlements of different origins and functions, in many
cases older than Katowice itself, such as Dąb (already mentioned in
1299) and Piotrowice (first mention in 1287). Over time, Katowice was
enlarged by the incorporation of neighboring units, which in part were
the communes of the former Katowice and Tyskie poviats. Katowice had the
largest territorial gains in 1924 (Bogucice, Zawodzie, Koszutka, Brynów,
Dąb, Muchowiec, Ligota, Załęska Hałda and Załęże), 1951 (Panewniki,
Piotrowice, Ochojec, Józefowiec and Wełnowiec), 1960 (eastern districts:
Szopienice, Roździeń, Janów, Nikiszowiec, Giszowiec, Burowiec and
Dąbrówka Mała) and 1975 (southern districts: Murcki, Podlesie, Kostuchna
and Zarzecze). These towns currently constitute separate districts or
are grouped, and some larger settlements have been separated from them
as separate units (e.g. the Witosa estate from Załęska Hałda). In the
interwar years, Katowice was divided into 4 districts: Katowice,
Bogucice-Zawodzie, Załęże-Dąb and Ligota-Brynów, and in the 1950s
Katowice was divided into three districts: Bogucice-Zawodzie, Ligota and
Śródmieście-Załęże. The current administrative division with minor
modifications has been in operation since September 16, 1991.
Katowice is located in the Upper Silesian Trough, which is the
northern part of a large Silesian-Moravian geological structure, which
fills formations from the Upper Carboniferous, especially the
coal-bearing sediments of the Ruda Beds (Westphalia A), lying within the
Paleozoic structures of the Central Polish Uplands. Under the
sedimentary series of the Upper Silesian Trough there are crystalline
rocks formed in the Precambrian. Above them lie diabases covered with
land sediments 100 m thick, consisting mainly of sandstones and
conglomerates. On top of them lie a 200-meter-long Early Cambrian layer
(fine-grained sandstone and mudstone), covered with sandstones from the
early Devonian. Within the area of Panewniki and southern Murceki, under
the Cenozoic layers, there are also limestone formations (Mussel
limestone) and Triassic variegated sandstone. These layers, together
with Carboniferous sediments, are largely covered by Quaternary
deposits, mainly of post-glacial origin, formed during the South Polish
glaciation. They consist of boulder clays, their wear and tear as well
as glacial sands and gravels, and in river valleys also river sediments.
The Upper Silesian Zapadlisko is characterized by poorly developed
fold tectonics, with the layers lying horizontally in the area of
Katowice, which is caused by the presence of a basin of a rigid
crystalline massif (Upper Silesian block) in the subsoil. They are
crossed by numerous faults, especially in the southern part of the city.
Katowice is located on the Bytomsko-Katowice Plateau, which is part
of the Silesian Upland, which is characterized by a diverse topography.
The highest point of Katowice is Wanda Hill, located at an altitude of
357.6 m above sea level, while the lowest part of Katowice is the
valleys of the Kłodnica and Mleczna rivers, where the height above sea
level is 245 m.
The northern part of Katowice is located within
the Bytom Plateau, with geomorphological units such as the Chorzów
Hills, the Siemianowicka Upland, the Brynica Valley and the Rawa
Depression. Wzgórza Chorzowskie, located in the area of Osiedle
Tysiąclecia, Wełnowiec, Dęb and Bogucice, are built of sandstones and
Carboniferous shales. They have the character of wavy, rounded or
flattened hills (the so-called Bogucickie plains), exceeding 300 m above
sea level in several places. The southern slopes of these hills are
dissected by basin-shaped valleys and end with a short, steep edge,
through which they pass to the Rawa Depression. The Chorzów Hills are
heavily transformed as a result of economic activity of man, mainly in
the form of heaps (e.g. in Wełnowiec) and post-mining subsidence. The
Siemianowice Upland, where Dąbrówka Mała and Szopienice are located,
reaches 280 m above sea level. It is marked in the form of a long, flat
ridge separating the Rawa and Brynica valleys. To the south of the
discussed hills is the Rawa Depression. It is deeply cut (over 100 m)
into the Carboniferous formations and forms the bottom of the valley
together with the Pleistocene terrace. Załęże, northern Śródmieście and
Zawodzie are located in the Rawa Depression.
The lowering of Rawa
separates the Bytom Plateau from the Katowice Plateau. The Katowicki
Plateau itself is higher than Bytom and covers the southern part of the
city. It lies within the Carboniferous Main Basin and is built of
sandstones and shales of the Orzeskie Beds. Due to numerous faults,
there are horsts, ditches and valleys. Within the Katowickie Hills, the
following geomorphological units are distinguished: Kochłowickie Hills,
Murcek Plateau, Mleczna Valley, Mikołowski Hump and Mysłowicka Valley.
Wzgórza Kochłowickie is a latitudinal embankment, which is characterized
by flattened hills up to 320-340 m above sea level. and dissected by
locally deep valleys. On these hills are located Załęska Hałda, Brynów
and southern Śródmieście. To the south of them there is the Kłodnica
Trench, where Ligota, Ochojec, Piotrowice and Panewniki are located. It
is a tectonic depression filled with Miocene and Quaternary sediments.
The height of the valley oscillates between 240-290 m above sea level. A
large part of Katowice (Kostuchna, Murcki, Giszowiec, Nikiszowiec,
Muchowiec and Janów) is located on the Murcek Plateau. The northern
slopes of the hills descend gently to the Rawa Depression. The southern
part consists of two latitudinal humps separated by the valley of Rów
Murckowski and the upper Przywra. Within them, there are large fragments
of Tertiary denudation flattening at an altitude of up to 330 m above
sea level. In the north-eastern part of Katowice, the plateau turns into
the Mysłowice Basin tectonic depression, while in the south into the
Mleczna Valley and the Upper Mleczna Depression, also of tectonic
origin, filled with Miocene and Pleistocene formations. In the
south-western part of Katowice, there is one of the Carboniferous
perches - Garb Mikołowski. The slopes of the hump have a different slope
due to the geological structure with different resistance to erosion.
The soils in Katowice have undergone major transformations as a
result of human activity, hence the large share of urban and industrial
soils. The northern, more urbanized part of the city is dominated by
anthropogenic soils. In the Rawa Depression and in the eastern part of
the Kłodnica Trench there are soils made of boulder clays and clay
sands, and on the Kochłowickie and Chorzowskie Hills they are made of
sandstones.
The southern and eastern parts of the city are
dominated by natural soils. Among them, lessive, podzolic and
pseudopodzolic soils predominate, especially on lighter soils. Light and
medium taurus soils occur along Potok Leśny (Paderewski estate), Bolina
(Janów), as well as in the Mleczna Valley (Murcki) and the southern part
of the Kłodnica Trench (Panewniki). A large part of southern Katowice is
covered with podzolic and rusty soils made of low-clay sands. They
include in particular the Upper Mleczna Depression and the Mleczna
Valley (Kostuchna, Podlesie and southern Murcki), as well as the central
part of the city (Ochojec).
In the area of Katowice, there are
also patches of lessive soils developed in Carboniferous sandstones (the
area of Nikiszowiec and the Odrodnia estate), as well as mud-swamp and
peat soils (Kłodnica and Przywra valleys).
In terms of
agricultural complexes, agricultural complexes of the 4th valuation
class dominate, which occupy more than half of the city's area. They are
located mainly in Załęże, Brynów, Zarzecze and Podlesie. Soils with
higher bonitation forests occur mainly in the more urbanized part of the
city and are not used for agriculture (areas of Wełnowiec, Bogucice,
Janów and Brynów). The poorest soils are located in the less urbanized
part of the city (mainly in Murcki, Giszowiec, Panewniki and Ochojec).
They are contaminated with heavy metals (lead, cadmium and zinc), the
source of which is industrial pollution and coal combustion.
Katowice is located in the transitional temperate climate zone.
According to the updated Köppen-Geiger classification, the city lies in
the Dfb zone - humid continental climate, and according to various
classifications it belongs to the region of the central highlands, the
Silesian-Cracow land and the Częstochowa-Kielce district.
The
climatic conditions of Katowice are influenced by natural geographical
factors, such as the terrain and altitude above sea level, the distance
from large water bodies (in this case, the Atlantic Ocean) and the
proximity of the Asian continent. In addition, the latitudinal
arrangement of hills and the Moravian Gate south-west of Katowice favor
the penetration of various air masses. The climate of Katowice, on the
other hand, does not stand out too much from the surroundings, but in
the case of large population centers, climatic conditions are also
influenced by anthropogenic factors, such as the urban heat island
effect. In this case, air temperatures and precipitation are higher than
those of agricultural and forest areas surrounding the main cities of
the Upper Silesian conurbation.
The climate is influenced by
oceanic masses. In air circulation over 60% of days a year, Katowice is
in the polar-marine air mass from the west, which results in a milder
climate in winter and cooling in summer, as well as rainfall. For 30% of
the days, polar-continental masses flow in from the east, resulting in
frosty and dry air in winter and hot and dry in summer. In addition, on
average, arctic air flows in from the north for 6% of the days a year,
tropical air for 2%, and the remaining masses for 2% of the days a year.
According to the data from the Muchowiec meteorological station, the
average annual air temperature is 7.9 °C (average from 1961-1990), the
average temperature in July is 17.4 °C, and in January -2.7 °C. The
lowest air temperature in Katowice during the measurement period was
recorded on January 8, 1987. At that time, the air temperature was −27.4
°C. The warmest day was August 29, 1992, when the temperature was 36 °
C. The average annual rainfall is 721 mm, with the most recorded in July
(110 mm). The highest daily rainfall was recorded on April 21, 1972 - 82
mm.
Weak winds are characteristic here, with an average speed of
3.3 m/s, blowing mainly from the west (21%) and south-west (20.1%). Snow
cover occurs for about 60 days a year. The average number of days with
fog in a year is 55 days, and the average annual duration of snow cover
is 60 days. According to data from the years 1966–2005, the average
annual cloudiness of Katowice on a scale of 9-0 (from completely cloudy
sky to clear weather) was 5.3, while the growing season is on average
210–220 days.
In terms of hydrology, Katowice is located in the basin of the two
largest rivers in Poland: the Vistula (80.5% of the city's area) and the
Oder (19.8% of the city's area; mainly in the area of Panewniki, Ligota,
Brynów and Ochojca) due to the 1st order watershed. Katowice in the
Vistula basin is drained by the catchment of the Rawa, Brynica and
Bolina, which are tributaries of the Czarna Przemsza. The Mleczna
catchment, together with its tributary Przyrwa, is the largest catchment
in Katowice (35% of the city's area). This river drains the southern
part of the city and leads its waters to Gostynia, which is a left-bank
tributary of the Vistula. The Kłodnica, which originates in Katowice,
together with the Ślepotka and smaller tributaries, discharges water
into the Oder. The total length of watercourses in Katowice is 107 km,
most of which are in the catchment area of Mleczna (45 km) and Kłodnica
(26 km). These areas are the most aquiferous due to the presence of
impermeable Miocene clay layers in the subsoil. The longest river in
Katowice is the Rawa, which is 12.1 km long within the city limits. The
river is fully regulated and has a concrete bed almost along its entire
length, devoid of hydraulic connection with groundwater, and in
Śródmieście this bed is covered. Formally, from the source to the mouth
of Potok Leśny, it constitutes an open sewer. The second longest river
in Katowice is the Kłodnica, whose length within the city limits is 10.7
km, and the third is Mleczna (9.7 km). Katowice's rivers, with the
exception of the Rawa sewage canal, are administered by the Regional
Water Management Board in Gliwice.
The regime of the rivers is
strongly disturbed due to e.g. for large surface retention,
technological drainage (dewatering of hard coal mines) and a
well-developed rainwater drainage system. In addition, due to the
transformation of water relations, almost all surface waters and a
significant part of groundwater are not suitable for economic use.
In the area of Katowice, there are several dozen anthropogenic water
reservoirs with a total area of 203 ha (not counting unfixed floodplains
in forest areas), of which 30 have an area exceeding 1 ha. Nearly half
of the total area of water reservoirs is the complex of ponds on the
border of Katowice, Sosnowiec and Mysłowice (89 ha in Katowice), created
in former sand pits. These are the ponds: Borki, Morawa and Hubertus II,
III and IV. In the Valley of Three Ponds (Potok Leśny), there are 11
water reservoirs with a total area of 33 ha. In addition, larger
reservoirs are located at the Wesoła Fala holiday resort (9 ha), at Park
Bolina (2.8 ha) and at the Tysiąclecia housing estate. There are also:
Pond Grünfeld in Brynów, Pond Trzewiczek in Janów and ponds in the area
of Giszowiec and in the Bolina valley (Barbara-Janina and Górnik). These
ponds together with their surroundings perform natural and recreational
functions.
Katowice is located within the Silesian-Cracow
hydrogeological region. Aquifers occur here in all stratigraphic layers,
but their importance depends on geological and hydrogeological factors
and human influence. Underground waters occur here at various depths -
from 10 to 100 meters. The main aquifer is porous-fissured and is
located in Carboniferous sandstones. These waters are under pressure,
but the drainage effect of hard coal mines is noticeable in them. Among
the remaining aquifer complexes, the Quaternary aquifer is of great
importance. It is mainly associated with fluvioglacial and river
sediments. The waters in these formations are usually found to a depth
of 5 meters. The largest complexes of these waters occur in the Rawa and
Kłodnica valleys.
There are currently several areas under legal protection in Katowice:
2 nature reserves (Las Murckowski, Ochojec), the nature and landscape
complex "Źródła Kłodnicy", the ecological site "Płone Bagno", "Stawy Na
Tysiącleciu", and about 12 green areas with the status of parks, the
largest of which is the Katowice Forest Park. Eight of them are entered
into the register of historic parks and gardens in Poland. In addition
to parks, there are a number of green areas and squares in the city. In
total, Katowice's landscaped green areas cover 13% of the city's area,
of which only 2% are parks. A total of 273 taxa of trees and shrubs were
inventoried. In Katowice, there are 35 specimens of trees recognized as
monuments of nature. Forests in Katowice cover 1.7% of all forests in
the province, making Katowice the most forested city in the Silesian
province. These forests are part of the GOP forest protection belt and
are under the supervision of the Katowice Forest Inspectorate. The
largest parks in Katowice include: Park im. Tadeusza Kościuszko,
Katowice Forest Park, Dolina Trzech Stawów, Zadole Park, Kalwaria
Panewnicka and several smaller ones, e.g. A. Budniok Park. At the
junction of the city limits of Katowice, Chorzów and Siemianowice, there
is the Silesian Park (within the administrative borders of Chorzów). In
addition, the city has a number of squares, the most important of which
are: Wolności Square, Andrzeja Square, Miarki Square, Council of Europe
Square, Grunwaldzki Square, J. Londzina Square, Cardinal Square. A.
Hlonda, Plac Alfreda.
According to a report by the World Health
Organization in 2016, Katowice was classified as the nineteenth most
polluted city in the European Union.
The name Katowice is genetically Slavic, old Polish, which is
confirmed by cosmetically changed foreign language forms, also in
non-Slavic languages, e.g. German.
The etymology of the name
Katowice is not unambiguous. There are two scientific hypotheses to
explain the origin of the place name:
from the personal name
(nickname) Kat, as the first settler (kuźnik) was probably called, hence
his descendants are Katowice and the name of the settlement Katowice
(the name continues the medieval patronymic model),
from the word
angle, meaning 'a place located in a corner, off the beaten track'
(Stanisław Rospond's hypothesis)
Although today's districts
existed earlier, e.g. Dąb mentioned in 1299 or Bogucice mentioned in
1360, the name of the village was first documented in 1598 as et nova
villa Katowice. From 1742, when Katowice became part of Prussia, until
1922, when the German part of Upper Silesia was annexed to Poland as the
autonomous Silesian Voivodeship, and also in the years 1939-1945 during
the German occupation, the city functioned under the German name of
Kattowitz. In the period from March 9, 1953 to December 20, 1956, the
city was officially named Stalinogród. It was introduced shortly after
the death of Joseph Stalin, to commemorate the memory of the Great
Leader and Teacher of the working masses and his immortal merits for
Poland, and was withdrawn in connection with the Gomułka thaw on October
21, 1956. The name of the (old) railway station was changed on March 8,
when part of travelers fled from the platforms, frightened that the
Russians had entered the city, which was justified by the unexpected
change of its name[need footnote]. The communist authorities forced
Gustaw Morcinek, a man of letters, to participate in the process of
communizing the city's name.
The German form Kattowitz is a
simple phonetic adaptation of the Polish formant -ice as -itz, with the
doubling of the consonant (here: root "t") after a short vowel ("a") as
required by German orthography.
Before obtaining city rights
The districts of today's Katowice
historically belonged to the lands of: Bytom (Dąbrówka Mała, Burowiec,
Dąb, Wełnowiec, Józefowiec), Mysłowice (Załęże, Zawodzie, Bogucice,
Szopienice, Janów, Brynów, Muchowiec, Koszutka, today's Śródmieście) and
Pszczyna (Murcki, Panewniki) , Piotrowice, Ochojec, Ligota, Kostuchna,
Zarzecze, Podlesie).
The first mention of Katowice appeared in
the records of Father Kazimierski, the visitor of the Bogucka parish in
1598. The history of the city, however, is marked by the fate of several
much earlier Slavic farming settlements from the 14th and 16th centuries
and iron forges, which are now its districts. Kuźnica Bogucka, located
on the banks of the Rawa River, was mentioned for the first time in 1397
and it was one of the oldest plants of this type in Poland. Apart from
Kuźnia Bogucka, there were three other similar factories in the area:
Załęski, Szopienicki and Roździeński. Several other Katowice districts
have a similar pedigree. The oldest district in Katowice is Dąb, which
is mentioned in documents as early as 1299. For several hundred years it
belonged to the monastery of Bozogrobców in Miechów. Subsequently, other
villages are mentioned, which today are districts of the city, mentioned
in the document of the Opava-Racibórz prince Mikołaj of December 15,
1360, confirming to Otto of Pilcza the ownership of the villages of
Jaźwce, Załęże, Bogucice, Roździeń and the city of Mysłowice.
In
the middle of the 16th century, in the area granted to Kuźniki, a farm
settlement appeared. Around 1580, the Bogucki forgeman, Andrzej, founded
the farming village of Katowice on his land, mentioned in the protocol
of the visitation of the Bogucki parish from 1598 as villa nova - a new
village, and for the next few centuries the farming and forging
settlements coexisted harmoniously.
In the 17th, 18th and the
first half of the 19th century, Katowice often changed its owners. The
year 1838 was important in history, when Franz von Winckler bought the
knightly estates of Katowice from Lehmann, and in 1841 transferred the
administration of his estates to Katowice. The development of the
village of Katowice began on October 3, 1846, when the Society of the
Upper Silesian Railway (OSE) launched a connection between Wrocław and
Mysłowice. On August 6, 1847, the first passenger train entered the main
railway station. In the years 1847–1848, through the OSE, Katowice was
connected to the network of European railways, e.g. with Berlin, Krakow,
Vienna and Warsaw.
Katowice in the mid-nineteenth century was a
multinational and multi-religious town, with a clear preponderance of
Catholics. The first service in the Polish language in Katowice,
however, is considered to be the Protestant service held on September 2,
1855 in the premises of Huta Marta. Already on September 29, 1858,
thanks to the significant support of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler, the then
owner of the Katowice estate, the Evangelical Church of the Lord's
Resurrection at today's Warszawska Street was consecrated. Catholics
from Katowice and neighboring villages used a small church in Bogucice
at that time. It was not until November 11, 1860 that the first Catholic
church in the village, built of half-timbered walls, which no longer
exists, was consecrated, located at today's Plac Wolności. In 1862, the
cornerstone was consecrated for the construction of the first stone
Catholic church in the city - the church of St. of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. In the same year, the first public, brick synagogue was completed
on the corner of today's 3 Maja and Słowackiego Streets (the so-called
old synagogue, 40 3 Maja Street), which was built by the builder Ignacy
Grünfeld.
The takeover of the landed estates by the Winckler
family and the opening of the railway contributed to the intensive
development and urbanization of the village, the center of which took on
an urban character from the 1850s. On September 11, 1865, at the
Babelsberg Castle, the Prussian King Wilhelm I Hohenzollern granted
Katowice city rights. At that time, the town had 4,815 inhabitants,
including 3,354 Catholics, 888 Evangelicals and 573 Jews. The first
mayor of Katowice was Louis Diebel, who fled to the USA after 5 years in
office, robbing the city of most of its funds.
As a result of the new territorial division of Silesia in 1873,
the former Bytom District was divided into 4 poviats (Tarnogórski,
Bytom, Zabrze and Katowice), and Katowice became a poviat city
(German: Kreisstadt). The Katowice poviat, which also included
Mysłowice, had about 16,000 inhabitants. inhabitants. The city
became the seat of the District Department (German: Kreisausschuss)
and the District Assembly (German: Kreistag) with 34 members. In
1876, the building of the District Office was opened. The first
landrat of the Katowice poviat was Baron Hans H. von Berlepsch,
later the Prussian Minister of Trade and Crafts. In 1897, Katowice
was excluded from the poviat, thus gaining greater independence.
Under Prussian rule (since 1742) in today's Katowice, especially
in the 19th century, industry developed, especially steelworks and
mines. In the second half of the same century, several institutions
were established that determined the development of the young
economic center: the Upper Silesian Coal Convention, the Upper
Silesian Association of Mining and Metallurgical Industrialists,
coal mining companies, the State Post Office (1866), the District
Court (1872). In the 1970s, after long negotiations, the management
of the Tiele-Winckler estate transferred to the city, for a very
favorable rent compensation, an area of land enabling further
development of Katowice. In 1895, Katowice became the seat of the
Directorate of the Prussian-Royal State Railways. At that time, the
Katowice district covered 1,279 km of tracks, employed 300
employees, and daily traffic showed 184 trains a day (including 80
passenger trains). Simultaneously with the development of the city,
the resistance of the Polish population to the intensifying
Germanization activities was growing.
The rapidly growing
population and its density in the city center made it necessary to
provide an adequate amount of water. From September 26, 1887,
Katowice was supplied with water from the "Kleofas" mine. Pumps
driven by a steam engine pumped it through a pipeline with a
diameter of 200 mm (with a capacity of 1.25 m³/min.) to a tank with
a capacity of 1000 m³ located on Beata Hill. From there, there was a
water supply network with a length of 12,800 m, which had 58
hydrants and 37 wells.
In 1871, the first gymnasium opened
its doors. At the end of the century, the city also had a real high
school, a high and low school, a middle school for boys and girls, 5
folk schools and a vocational construction school. In 1895, the
Hospital of Spółka Bracka was established (with clinics:
ophthalmology and laryngology) with 450 beds, in 1900 the hospital
of St. Elżbieta with 200 beds, in 1904 the City Hospital with 120
beds, and in 1912 the Children's Hospital with 60 beds. At the
beginning of the 20th century, Katowice was enriched with the
Municipal Theater (later the Silesian Theatre), built at the Market
Square in 1905–1907 according to the design of the Cologne architect
Carl Moritz. The new century brought to the city the third railway
station in its history, preserved to this day, although not used in
its original form.
As the city expanded and its population
grew, so did the need for new temples. In 1870, the construction of
the brick Catholic St. Mary's Church was completed, which on June
14, 1873 became a parish church. On November 8, 1900, the church of
St. Joseph of the resurrected parish in Załęże. In 1902, a new
church was completed and consecrated. st. Peter and Paul. On
December 22 of that year, the Franciscans were brought to Stare
Panewniki.
In 1869, on a plot purchased a year earlier at ul.
Kozielska, a Jewish cemetery was opened. In 1872, an independent
rabbinate was established in the Israelite community. The first
independent rabbi was Dr. kohn. The synagogue on the corner of
today's 3 Maja and Słowackiego streets was significantly expanded in
1882, but in the following years the Israeli community in Katowice
decided to build a new, larger synagogue with a house for the board
and rooms for existing community institutions. The neo-Moorish style
building was erected in 1900 at Mickiewicza Street, but it was burnt
down during the German occupation in 1939.
The outbreak of
World War I did not cause damage and losses in Katowice, but the
development of industry and favorable economic conditions,
especially for metallurgical plants. On April 15, 1919, the
authorities of the Katowice police reported: “The greater part of
Polish workers today is on the side of the communists, not the
all-Polish party. (…) The number of Spartacus members in the police
district is 20-25 thousand.”
During the First Silesian Uprising in August 1919, in some of today's
districts of the city, and then separate towns (Szopienice, Bogucice,
Dąbrówka Mała), there were several days of fighting between the Silesian
insurgents and the Silesian SSOS. On August 17-18, 1920, there were
riots in the city, during which German militias attacked French troops
and Polish inhabitants of the city. These events were one of the reasons
for the outbreak of a strike in Katowice on August 20, and then the
outbreak of the Second Silesian Uprising, during which the state of
siege was declared in the city by the conciliation troops. The fighting
took place in today's districts of the city, such as Załęska Hałda,
Bogucice and Oak.
In these circumstances, on March 20, 1921, a
plebiscite was held in Upper Silesia. In the Katowice constituency,
which included the county and the city of Katowice, 51.9% of voters were
in favor of staying in Germany. In the city of Katowice itself, 85.4%,
and in the Katowice poviat, 44.4% of voters voted for Germany and 55.6%
for Poland (of course, it should be taken into account that some of
today's districts were incorporated into Katowice only in 1924. and in
the period of the Polish People's Republic, so the city covered a much
smaller area during the plebiscite period). During the Third Silesian
Uprising, on May 3, 1921, after a fight that lasted all night, the city
was captured by eight battalions of Silesian insurgents under the
command of Walenty Fojkis and Adam Kocur.
After the Silesian Uprisings, Katowice together with the surrounding
communes and part of Upper Silesia were annexed to Poland. Pursuant to
the decree of October 3, 1922, Katowice became the seat of the
authorities of the autonomous Silesian Voivodship with its own
Parliament (Silesian Parliament) and the Treasury (Skarb Śląski). There
was an outflow of the German population and an influx of the Polish
population from the part of Silesia left to the Germans, and Poles from
other regions of Poland also flocked in large numbers, often for better
work in mines or steelworks. The interwar years were a period of
enormous development of the city as a result of the first large
incorporations of suburban communes. among others On October 15, 1924,
the communes of Bogucice, Dąb, Załęże, Brynów and Ligota Pszczyńska were
incorporated into the city poviat, the city of Katowice. The city's
population increased from 56,000 to in 1922 to 135,000 in 1939. In 1926,
the following operated in the city: 4 hard coal mines (11,150 workers in
total), 5 iron works and one zinc smelter (2,551 workers in total), 4
metal foundries and steel construction plants (1,047 workers), 2 machine
factories (318 workers), a porcelain factory (300 workers), a fertilizer
factory (150 workers), a mine wood impregnation plant (131 workers), an
electric motor factory (113 workers), an oil refinery, 2 sawmills, a
steam mill and others
Before World War II, the city was the seat
of as many as 53 banks, 14 foreign diplomatic representations, 9
international corporations, 4 joint-stock companies, 9 sales offices and
7 economic associations. Numerous public utility facilities were also
built, including the modern airport at Muchowiec, which was commissioned
in 1926. The southern part of the city was also expanded, and luxury
villa estates and monumental sacral buildings were built (including the
garrison church of Saint Casimir, the beginning of the construction of
the Cathedral of Christ the King).
Culture developed relatively
dynamically. The City Theatre, subsidized from the city budget, was
thriving. In 1932, the city had 9 cinemas with sound. The largest of
them, "Rialto", could accommodate 1,050 spectators. In 1927, the Polish
Radio Katowice began operating, which in 1937 received a new building at
ul. J. Ligonia. The press, apart from national titles, in 1926 was
represented by 11 daily newspapers published in Katowice (including 8 in
Polish, 3 in German) and a significant (and variable) number of less
frequent periodicals. Connections with Warsaw were provided, among
others, by the airport put into use in 1927. The construction of the
building of the Silesian Museum was also started (unfinished, it was
demolished by the Germans in 1940).
During the September Campaign, on the night of September 2-3, 1939, larger units of the Polish Army withdrew from Katowice, although on September 3-4, the city was defended by local Polish activists from Katowice (mainly former Silesian insurgents and scout youth). On September 4, the Wehrmacht entered the city, enthusiastically welcomed by the German minority in Katowice, after which the persecution of the city's defenders, insurgents and people on the proscription lists of the Gestapo began. Directly incorporated into the Third Reich, Katowice became the seat of the regency authorities (since November 1, 1939), and then of the Upper Silesian province. By April 1941, all Jews had been expelled from Katowice, of which over 8,300 had lived here before the war. During the occupation, the Germans displaced a number of Poles from Katowice, for whom a transit camp was established in Ligota. Fritz Bracht was appointed over-president of the regency and Gauleiter. During this period, Katowice also became the seat of the district authorities of the Nazi party, as well as the headquarters of the Gestapo. During the German occupation, attempts were made to destroy all traces of Katowice's Polishness and regional Silesian character in the city, the city was completely Germanized, getting rid of Poles as well. During the German occupation, the Polish partisans of the Home Army operated in the vicinity of Katowice. The city was occupied on the night of January 27/28, 1945 by the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front. As a result of arson by the Soviet army, part of the city center between Św. Jana and Pocztowa, and the frontage between the Market Square and ul. Stawowa.
In 1945, Katowice again became the capital of the Silesian
Voivodeship; Jerzy Ziętek became the first voivode, followed by
Aleksander Zawadzki. The first mayor of the city was Józef Wesołowski.
In the years 1945–1946, Poles expelled from Kresy Wschodnie (among
others from the Lwów region), who decided not to continue to the west of
Poland and got off at the Katowice station, also flocked to Katowice.
The change of the name of Katowice to Stalinogród (March 9, 1953 –
December 19, 1956) was a nearly four-year episode, the historical name
was restored as a result of de-Stalinization after the death of Bolesław
Bierut. On December 30, 1955, during the so-called After the
displacement of the Silesian bishops, the Ordinary of Częstochowa,
Zdzisław Goliński, consecrated the Cathedral of Christ the King in
Katowice. During this period, the importance of the city as a scientific
and cultural center increased, and the city also became a university
center. Large housing estates and several representative buildings were
built, including the monument to the Silesian Insurgents and the Spodek
hall, which became symbols of the city. The Super Unit, shopping
pavilions and the Art Exhibitions Office, the Wedding Palace, the
Silesia and Katowice hotels and the railway station building were also
built. In 1974, on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the
Polish People's Republic, the city was awarded the Order of the Banner
of Labor, 1st class, for its contribution to building socialism.
After December 13, 1981 and the introduction of martial law by the
authorities of the People's Republic of Poland, there was a strike in
Katowice by the crews of, among others, in the Baildon steelworks and in
the Staszic, Wieczorek and Wujek mines. On December 16, as a result of
the use of weapons in KWK Wujek by ZOMO, 7 miners died on the spot, and
as a result of their wounds, 2 more died later in the hospital.
On June 20, 1983, Pope John Paul II came with a pilgrimage to Katowice
and met with the faithful at the airport in Muchowiec. About 1.5 million
people came to the mass. The Pope also visited the cathedral and handed
over a commemorative medal to the mayor of the city, Edward Mesha.
Katowice is the capital of the Roman Catholic metropolis. On March
25, 1992, the Pope established the Katowice metropolis. Earlier - from
1925 - the city was the seat of a diocese.
Katowice is the 11th largest Polish city in terms of population
(282,755 inhabitants as of December 31, 2021) and the 11th largest in
terms of area (164.64 km²). The population of Katowice constitutes about
0.8% of the population of the whole country. The population of Katowice
has been steadily decreasing since 1989 as a result of natural decline
and negative migration balance. In the period 1995-2007, the number of
permanent residents decreased by 35.7 thousand. people (10.3%), i.e. an
average increase of 2,200-2,500 inhabitants per year. The largest
population losses occurred in the northern districts of the city,
especially in Śródmieście (25% of the population in the period
1988-2007). The loss of more than 15% of inhabitants in the period
1988-2007 also occurred in the following districts: Dąb,
Wełnowiec-Józefowiec, Załęże and Załęska Hałda-Brynów. During this
period, the population increased in three southern districts of
Katowice: Kostuchno, Podlesie and Zarzecze.
The average
population density in 2007 was 1,895 people/km². The most densely
populated is Osiedle Tysiąclecia (12.5 thousand people/km²) and
Śródmieście (9.4 thousand people/km²). The lowest population density is
in the southern districts of Katowice - in Murcki (140 people/km²,
mainly due to the location in a large forest complex) and Podlesie (663
people/km²).
In mid-2014, 47.54% of the city's inhabitants
(144,193 people) were men, while 52.46% (159,121 people) were women. The
feminization rate was then 110 women per 100 men. Katowice's population
is ageing, which is caused by an increase in the percentage of
post-working age residents, as well as a decrease in the number of
people under the age of 18. Koszutka, Dąb and Brynów-Osiedle
Zstrzelnioka have the largest share of people in post-working age. In
2007, the working-age population accounted for approximately 65% of the
total population.
In terms of nationality structure, in the 2002
National Census, Polish nationality was declared by 296,792 (90.1%) out
of 327,222 surveyed inhabitants of the city. Silesian nationality was
declared by 17,777 inhabitants of Katowice (5.4%). In addition, 674
Germans and 165 Roma lived in the city at that time. 470 residents
declared a different nationality, and 11,344 have undetermined
nationality (no declaration). During the 2011 National Census, Silesian
nationality was declared by 78,838 inhabitants of Katowice, i.e. 24.4%
of the city's inhabitants, and 90% of the inhabitants of Katowice
declared Polish nationality (two nationalities can be declared in the
censuses, so most of those declaring Silesian nationality also declared
Polish nationality).
The demographic development of Katowice is associated with the incorporation of border settlements and thus with the territorial development of the city. Since obtaining city rights in 1865, Katowice has expanded its area several times and changed its administrative structure. In the period from 1825 to 1924, the population doubled approximately every 10 years, mainly due to migration and incorporation of the surrounding settlements, and during these 100 years, the number of inhabitants of the city increased more than 165 times. On July 15, 1924, the city's population exceeded 100,000. On that day, the following cities were incorporated into Katowice: Bogucice, Brynów, Dąb, Ligota, Załęska Hałda, Załęże and Zawodzie, which practically doubled the number of inhabitants from less than 57 thousand. to almost 113,000 (129,437 in May 1930). Subsequent incorporations of the surrounding settlements took place in 1951 (Piotrowice, Ochojec, Panewniki, Wełnowiec, Józefowiec), 1960 (Szopienice, Nikiszowiec, Dąbrówka Mała, Giszowiec, Janów) and 1975 (Kostuchna, Podlesie, Zarzecze, Murcki). Katowice recorded the largest population in 1987 - according to the data of the Central Statistical Office, the city had 368,621 inhabitants at that time. At the end of the 1980s, the demographic development of the city changed and the population of Katowice began to decline from 368,621 in 1987 to 282,755 at the end of 2021. According to the forecasts of the Central Statistical Office, the number of inhabitants of Katowice is expected to fall to 248,455 in 2035 .
Katowice is one of the largest economic centers in Poland. The
economy of the city is based mainly on the service sector. At the end of
2012, there were 44,050 business entities registered in the REGON
system, of which 1,469 (3.4% of all entities in Katowice) were public
sector entities, and 42,581 (96.6%) were private sector entities. In
total, it accounted for almost 10% of all entities registered in the
Śląskie Voivodship.
In terms of employment, on December 31, 2006,
with over 150,000 employed in Katowice, more than 73% were employed in
the private sector (without business entities employing up to 9 people).
This is the result of economic transformations in recent years. In 2008,
the average gross monthly salary in the enterprise sector amounted to
PLN 4,362.39. The level of unemployment in Katowice is one of the lowest
in Poland - at the end of October 2014 there were 10,000 registered.
unemployed, and the unemployment rate was 4.8% (9th place among all
poviats in Poland).
Katowice has several institutions supporting
the economy. The most important one is the Katowice Special Economic
Zone, with its seat in Katowice. As at December 31, 2013, the city held
approximately 10% of shares in the KSEZ. In Katowice, the total area of
the KSSE complexes in the Tychy subzone in 2008 was approximately 128
ha. In addition to the KSSE, there are several industrial and technology
parks operating in Katowice, which are places for locating new
industrial and service activities. These include, among others:
Upper Silesian Industrial Park - a park created in the area of the
former Huta Silesia at ul. Konduktorska. Its beginning dates back to
2005, when conceptual work on this zone began. The company mainly deals
with the rental of modern production, warehouse and office space, as
well as legal services and assistance in establishing and promoting
business entities.
Euro-Centrum Industrial Park – an office and
service complex opened in 2008 at ul. Ligocka 103. At that time, it
consisted of 4 new and 7 reconstructed facilities and offered 480 jobs.
In 2007, Euro-Centrum Science and Technology Park was established, whose
activity, with the participation of business and science, focuses on the
development of energy-saving technologies in buildings.
Agricultural activity in Katowice has a limited scope due to the
large urbanization. In total, in 2007, 320.19 ha of the city's area
(1.94% of the total) was used for agriculture. This area is constantly
shrinking due to the following urbanization. The area of
post-agricultural wasteland was nearly 240 ha (2.26% of the city's
area), and the area of undeveloped plots on post-agricultural land was
341 ha (2.07%). In 2007, 447 inhabitants of Katowice worked in
agriculture (0.3% of the total working population).
Agricultural
activity takes place mainly in the southern districts of the city,
especially in Zarzecze and Podlesie, where agricultural areas cover over
100 ha. In addition, agricultural areas are also found in Kostuchno,
Murcki, Piotrowice-Ochojec and Szopienice-Burowiec, of which in the
latter district the area of agricultural land is 32 ha. Among them,
farms with an area of up to 1 ha predominate. On the other hand, there
is no agricultural land in the downtown districts. Post-agricultural
land in Katowice occurs especially in the northern districts of
agricultural origin (mainly in Załęże, Osiedle Witosa, Bogucice,
Wełnowiec-Józefowiec and Załęska Hałda-Brynów).
According to the
data from the National Agricultural Census of 2010, on 262.81 ha of sown
area, mainly cereals are cultivated (291.38 ha), including spring wheat
(39.46 ha) and oats (32.42 ha). Among farm animals in Katowice in 2010,
there were 56.8 thousand poultry, 589 pigs and 126 cattle.
The development of mining and heavy industry in the 19th century
became one of the city-forming factors of Katowice, especially its outer
districts. The beginnings of hard coal mining date back to 1740, when
the Murcki mine was launched, and in 1769 the construction of the
Emanuelssegen (Blessed Emanuel) mine began. With the increasing demand
for coal in the first half of the 19th century, the following were
established in what is now Katowice: in 1801 the Beata mine (later part
of the Wujek mine), in 1823 Ferdynand in Bogucice and in 1845 Kleofas in
Załęże. In the 19th century, zinc metallurgy developed intensively,
which was one of the basic branches of heavy industry within the
boundaries of present-day Katowice. In 1863, there were 12 zinc smelters
in Katowice, the largest of which was the Wilhelmina smelter in
Szopienice, founded in 1834. At that time, the iron industry was also
developing. The first steelworks was established on the border of Dęb
and Załęże in 1823 on the initiative of John Baildon.
The city of
Katowice itself, until the incorporation in 1924 of industrial and
residential districts, had mainly an administrative and service
character. In 1931, 49.5% of the town's inhabitants worked in industry,
of which 12.5% worked in hard coal mining. In 1938, there were a total
of 258 industrial plants, including 55 metallurgical plants, 41 chemical
and technological plants, and 19 ceramic and stone plants. At that time,
apart from heavy industry, there was a processing industry, strongly
connected with heavy and mining industry, producing mainly means of
production, while the industry focused on consumer goods functioned in
the form of small plants. The zinc industry in the interwar years had a
much smaller role - at that time there was only one steelworks -
Kunegunda.
In the years 1945–1989, industry continued to play a
significant role in the city's economy. In 1968, 8% of domestic
production of hard coal (10.4 million tons), 1.9% of steel (214.6%) and
73.3% of zinc (148.8 thousand tons) came from Katowice. In the scale of
the then Katowice Voivodship, in 1975 the share of industrial production
was 12.8%, and employment in industry was 11.4%. In 1985, these shares
were smaller - 10.7% of industrial production and 9.7% of those working
in industry. In 1989, 112.2 thousand people were employed in industry.
inhabitants of Katowice (36% of employees in the city). After World War
II, there were 7 hard coal mines in Katowice: Katowice, Kleofas, Wujek,
Eminencja (Gottwald from 1953), Wieczorek, Boże Dary and Murcki. In
1964, in the reserve areas of the Wieczorek mine, the Staszic mine was
launched, in 1974 the Kleofas and Gottwald mines were merged, and in
1976 Boże Dary and Murcki mines. In 1990, two steel mills operated in
the area of Katowice: Baildon and Ferrum, as well as the Szopienice
Non-Ferrous Metal Works and the Silesia Metallurgical Plant, which were
liquidated due to their burdensome impact on the environment. In 1985,
10.2 thousand people worked in metallurgy. people. Among the other
branches of industry, a high share in the period of the People's
Republic of Poland was in the machinery industry, specialized mainly in
the production of mining machinery and equipment. The most important
factories included: the Piotrowicka Mining Equipment Factory, the Mining
Equipment and Tools Factory and the Silesian Mining Equipment Factory.
After 1989, as a result of economic transformations, Katowice
remains one of the most important industrial centers in Poland. In
1995–2006, the share of people employed in industry decreased by almost
half, to 27.9% of the total number of employees in 2006. During that
time, several burdensome industrial plants, as well as many mines and
steelworks, were liquidated. The post-industrial areas remaining after
their liquidation are often intended for other functions, mainly
commercial and service. The most important transformations of this type
include the construction of the Silesia City Center shopping center on
the site of the former Gottwald mine, as well as the new seat of the
Silesian Museum on the site of the former Katowice mine. After 1989,
modern branches of industry developed, especially in industrial and
technology parks.
Heavy industry still plays an important role in
the city's economy. Currently operating hard coal mines are combined
into one of the 3 largest coal companies in Poland - Katowicki Holding
Węglowy, whose seat is vocalized in Katowice. This holding includes 3
mines from Katowice and one from Sosnowiec and Mysłowice. There are
currently 2 hard coal mines and 4 steelworks operating in Katowice:
KWK Wujek,
KWK Murcki-Staszic,
Ferrum S.A.,
BGH Polska
(Edelstahl) (formerly Huta Baildon).
ZM Silesia (formerly Huta
Silesia)
BATERPOL S.A. (formerly HMN Szopienice)
Katowice is an important commercial and service centre, especially in
the area of: wholesale and retail trade, financial intermediation, real
estate and business services, science and education, specialist medical
services as well as public and economic administration. As of December
31, 2006, 73% of the inhabitants are employed in the service sector, and
in 2007, 76.6% of companies registered in Katowice were entities in the
market services sector, and 7.7% in non-market services.
Due to
the central location of Katowice in the Upper Silesian conurbation, the
city provides many metropolitan services, as evidenced by the presence
of a rich infrastructural base. Katowice is an important center of
administration, culture, education and trade. Katowice, as the capital
of the Silesian Voivodeship, is home to public administration units,
including municipal and provincial government administration, local
government administration, inter-communal associations, church
authorities (the seat of the Archdiocese of Katowice) and other
institutions. In 2007, there were 20 universities in Katowice, of which
approx. 54.5 thousand were educated at public universities. students.
The city is the seat of five clinical hospitals of the Medical
University of Silesia and many cultural institutions of local and
supra-regional scope.
The greatest concentration of services is
in Śródmieście, which has been developing its functions since the
mid-nineteenth century, when in 1839 Franciszek von Winckler transferred
the management of his estate to Katowice, and in 1846 a railway line to
the city was opened. These two factors influenced the development of
trade and crafts, and later also the administrative and disposition
function. Local service centers have also developed in the districts.
Their degree of equipment depends primarily on the size of the serviced
area and the genesis of the centres.
Since the late 1980s, the structure of trade throughout Poland has
changed completely, including Katowice. The former department stores
were mostly privatized. Municipal marketplaces still operate in Katowice
- the Załęże bazaar with the agri-food section, the marketplace at Plac
Miarki and the marketplace at ul. Katowicka, managed by the communal
Department of Municipal Markets. In 2007, there were 4,600 commercial
entities registered in Katowice. Their number has been gradually
decreasing since 2002, mainly due to the increase in the number of
medium- and large-format retail schemes. There are three large shopping
centers and several smaller ones in the city. Most supermarkets are
located near residential areas. The largest shopping and entertainment
centers include: Galeria Katowicka, CH 3 Stawy, CH Dąbrówka and Silesia
City Center. The city hosts a number of fairs on various topics, such
as:
International Fair of Mining, Energy and Metals,
Toolexpo
International Fair of tools and machine tools,
International Food
Fair,
Autumn construction fair,
Silesian real estate fair,
International Motor Show,
International Fair of Automotive
Technology,
BIKE International Bicycle Fair,
International Welding
Fair,
Health and Safety Fair.
Katowice is running a program of revitalization and redevelopment of
the city center. As part of this project, the area of the Market Square
together with the adjacent streets and Aleja Korfantego along with the
area around the roundabout are being rebuilt.
In addition, many
projects of private investors are under preparation or construction. Due
to problems with the Muchowiec airport, the construction of skyscrapers
has been blocked so far. In 2009, around fourteen investors are trying
to obtain building permits for high-rise buildings. The most advanced
are the projects of the Silesia Towers by the corporation of TriGranit
developers, currently works are being carried out related to the
prestigious KTW office buildings, which are to act as the city's
showcase, Jupiter Plaza and the Hines Polska office building. In
addition, many important buildings in the city are undergoing
comprehensive revitalization - first of all, the renovation of the
housing estate Tysiąclecia, Spodek, the Haperowiec skyscraper and the
planned redevelopment of the DOKP office building.
The supply of
office space is approx. 337,000 square meters, which gives it 4th place
in Poland. In 2015, the supply is expected to increase by another 60,000
sq m due to the construction of i.a. Silesia Business Park, Silesia
Star, A4 Business Park. For several years, industrial buildings that
have been thoroughly revitalized and adapted for offices or apartments
have also been popular.
Katowice's residential market is
developing rapidly. They are built e.g. Dębowe Tarasy Estate, Nowe
Tysiąclecie Estate, 4 Towers Estate, Karoliny Estate, Złota Katowice
Apartment Building, Zielone Katowice Estate, Dolina Trzech Stawów
Estate, Moje Dolina Estate, Atal Francuska Park Estate, Franciszkańskie
Estate or the luxurious Bażantow Estate.
On June 6, 2013, IBM
announced that it would invest in Katowice. By the end of 2015, it is to
employ 2,000 people in Katowice, while companies from the Silicon Valley
in California will invest in the Euro-Centrum Industrial Park. The most
famous companies that have invested in Katowice include: Capgemini,
Fujitsu Technology Solutions, Unilever, Rockwell Automation, Oracle,
PwC, Deloitte, Vattenfall, Kroll Ontrack, ING, ABB, Bombardier, Mentor
Graphics and UPC.
Katowice is located at the crossroads of a number of road
communication routes. The following routes run through the city:
European route E40: France - Belgium - Germany - Poland - Ukraine -
Russia - Kazakhstan - Uzbekistan - Kyrgyzstan;
European route E75:
Norway - Finland - Poland - Slovakia - Hungary - Serbia - North
Macedonia - Greece - Crete;
European route E462: Poland - Czech
Republic;
A4 motorway: border with Germany - Jędrzychowice - Legnica
- Wrocław - Opole - Gliwice - Katowice - Kraków - Tarnów - Rzeszów -
Korczowa - border with Ukraine;
national road No. 79: Warsaw -
Kozienice - Zwoleń - Sandomierz - Kraków - Trzebinia - Chrzanów -
Jaworzno - Katowice - Chorzów - Bytom;
national road No. 81: Katowice
- Mikołów - Żory - Skoczów;
national road No. 86: Wojkowice Kościelne
- Będzin - Sosnowiec - Katowice - Tychy.
There are several
important roads in the vicinity of Katowice:
national road No. 1:
Pyrzowice - Dąbrowa Górnicza - Tychy - Bielsko-Biała - Żywiec - Zwardoń
- border with Slovakia
A1 motorway: Gdańsk – Grudziądz – Toruń –
Włocławek – Łódź – Piotrków Trybunalski – Częstochowa – Gliwice –
Gorzyczki – border with the Czech Republic;
national road No. 11:
Kołobrzeg - Koszalin - Piła - Poznań - Jarocin - Ostrów Wielkopolski -
Kępno - Lubliniec - Tarnowskie Góry - Bytom;
national road No. 44:
Gliwice - Mikołów - Tychy - Oświęcim - Zator - Skawina - Kraków;
national road No. 78: border with the Czech Republic - Chałupki -
Wodzisław Śląski - Rybnik - Gliwice - Tarnowskie Góry - Siewierz -
Zawiercie - Szczekociny - Jędrzejów - Chmielnik;
national road No.
88: Strzelce Opolskie - Nogowczyce - Gliwice - Bytom;
national road
No. 94: junction "Zgorzelec" - Bolesławiec - Legnica - Prochowice -
Wrocław - Brzeg - Opole - Strzelce Opolskie - Pyskowice - Bytom - Będzin
- Sosnowiec - Dąbrowa Górnicza - Olkusz - Kraków - Targowisko - Tarnów -
Pilzno - Dębica - Ropczyce - Rzeszow - Jaroslaw - Korczowa.
There
is also the Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa (Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa) route -
an expressway which is supposed to run through Katowice, Chorzów,
Świętochłowice, Ruda Śląska, Zabrze, Gliwice and through Mysłowice,
Sosnowiec, Będzin and Dąbrowa Górnicza. Two expressways also run this
way: S1 (part of national road No. 1 and the GOP Eastern Bypass) and S86
(part of national road No. 86). These routes, in external connections,
provide direct access to neighboring cities, to voivodeship centers such
as Opole, Wrocław or Kraków, as well as to European countries,
especially Western Europe (Germany, Belgium and France), as well as to
the south (mainly to the Czech Republic) .
The basis of
Katowice's internal communication system are the main streets, which to
a large extent implement connections on a city scale, and also connect
with the main routes of road communication. They are also connected with
collective and local roads, which serve as connections between units in
individual districts, and serve housing estates and functional
facilities. The most important streets include:
Bytkowska - Agnieszka
- Bukowa - Złota - Bracka - Bocheńskiego (this route runs meridionally
and connects the following districts: Wełnowiec-Józefowiec, Dąb,
Załęże/Witosa Estate and Załęska Hałda-Brynów);
TV - al. Korfantego
(connects Śródmieście with the northern districts of Katowice: Koszutka,
Bogucice and Wełnowiec-Józefowiec);
Hallera - Obrońców Westerplatte -
Bednorza - Lwowska (road connecting the S86 route with the national road
No. 79 through Dąbrówka Mała and Szopienice-Burowiec);
Mysłowicka -
Kolista - 73 Infantry Regiment - Kolejowa (road running from the border
of Katowice with Mysłowice through Giszowiec and Piotrowice-Ochojec);
Ligocka - Piotrowicka - Armii Krajowej (a road along Załęska
Hałda-Brynowa, Ligota-Panewnik and southern districts of the city).
The average speed of vehicles in the center of Katowice in 2014 was
29 km/h. Traffic peaks between 7:45 AM and 9:15 AM, and between 4:00 PM
and 5:15 PM. According to data from September 2007, during the afternoon
rush hour, the highest traffic volume is on al. Roździeńskiego (an
average of 9,710 vehicles on the Olimpijska - al. Korfantego section and
6,114 on S 86), Chorzowska (6,245 vehicles at the level of Silesia City
Center and 3,279 at the level of Bracka Street), Renców Route (3,175
vehicles on the Orląt Lwowskich Flyover), A4 motorway towards Mysłowice
(3,026 vehicles) and ul. Kościuszko (2,965 vehicles). The biggest
congestions in the rush hour in the city center of Katowice are on the
following streets: Sokolska, Francuska, Damrota and al. Korfanty.
Katowice is one of the largest rail transport hubs in Poland, both in
terms of passenger and freight transport. 20 railway lines managed by
PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe run through the city. Katowice is located at
the intersection of two trans-European transport corridors:
line E30
Dresden - Wrocław - Katowice - Przemyśl - Kiev - Moscow,
line E65
Gdynia - Warsaw - Katowice - Ostrava - Vienna - Rijeka.
Within
the city there is the main junction station and the largest passenger
station of the Katowice junction - Katowice. Trains of all categories
depart from it (beginning of 2015), including Express InterCity Premium,
EuroCity, Express InterCity and InterCity, providing connections with
all the largest cities in Poland and with Austria, Belarus, the Czech
Republic, France, Russia, Slovakia and Hungary. Annually, the station is
used by an average of 12 million passengers. Rail freight transport is
primarily the transport of hard coal, due to the location of the city,
transit transport, also international, plays an important role.
There are also 8 railway stations and stops in the city: Katowice
Brynów, Katowice Ligota, Katowice Szopienice Południowe, Katowice
Podlesie, Katowice Piotrowice, Katowice Załęże, Katowice Zawodzie and
the unused Katowice Ochojec and Katowice Murcki stations.
Railway
communication in Katowice has been operating since October 3, 1846, when
the extension of the line of the Society of the Upper Silesian Railway
from Świętochłowice through Katowice to Mysłowice was launched. The
station in Katowice was built in the middle of nowhere, halfway between
the villages of Dąb and Szopienice. Later, new railway connections and
sidings to industrial plants were built in the area of the village. On
December 1, 1852, the line from Katowice to the hard coal mine in Murcki
was opened, while on August 24, 1859, the link between the lines of the
Upper Silesian Railway and the Warsaw-Vienna Railway (Szopienice -
Ząbkowice route) was ceremonially opened along with the construction of
a new station building in Katowice. In the following years, several new
railway lines and slip roads were brought to Katowice, including in 1858
the line of the Wilhelma Railway from Mikołów to Ligota and in 1870 the
line of the Right Bank of the Odra Railway from Bytom through Dąbrówka
Mała and Szopienice to Dziedzice. The development of the railway in
Katowice was one of the factors of the rapid development of the city,
thanks to which it received city rights in 1865.
The public transport system in Katowice is based on bus and tram
transport. The share of traffic using public transport was 57% in 2007.
The main organizer of public transport in Katowice is the Metropolitan
Transport Authority (ZTM) based in Katowice (previously known as the
Communications Union of the Upper Silesian Industrial District; KZK GOP;
liquidated on December 31, 2018). As of 2013, the length of routes
operated on behalf of the then KZK GOP in the city was 248.86 km,
including 220.75 km of bus routes and 28.11 km of tram routes. The total
length of lines in this period was 922.25 km (the most among ZTM member
cities), including 824.48 km of bus lines and 97.78 km of tram lines.
Over 100 ZTM lines run through Katowice, of which 30 are intra-city
lines (28 bus and 2 tram lines). In addition, in the area of Katowice
there are lines operated by the Municipal Road and Bridge Authority in
Jaworzno (buses to Jaworzno; almost 800 vehicle-kilometres per day in
2013). The largest carrier is PKM Katowice, which performs transport on
behalf of ZTM.
Tram transport in the city is organized on behalf
of ZTM by Tramwaje Śląskie S.A., of which Katowice is the largest
shareholder (32.67% of shares). The total length of tram routes in 2013
was 28.11 km, and operational work in 2013 in Katowice amounted to
nearly 9,000 vehicle-kilometres per day. On January 30, 2015, 12 tram
lines ran through Katowice, including one intra-city line (36 Brynów
Pętla – Zawodzie Pętla). The structure of the tram network in Katowice
has a radial layout with a focus on the Market Square and connects
Śródmieście with e.g. with Brynów, Koszutka, Osiedle Tysiąclecia,
Szopienice, Wełnowiec, Załęże and Zawodzie.
The beginnings of
tram transport in Katowice date back to the end of the 19th century,
when on December 30, 1896, the section Katowice (at the level of the
current Gen. Ziętka roundabout) - Wełnowiec - Huta Laura was opened,
which was electrified after two years. In the same year, the
construction of the Katowice (Rynek) – Dąb – Królewska Huta tram line
began, which was completed in August and launched on November 25, 1898.
In 1899, the Oberschlesische Dampfstraßenbahn (ODS) company obtained a
concession for the line Hajduki Górne – Katowice – Załęże – Zawodzie –
Szopienice - Mysłowice, which was launched on October 31, 1900. In 1912,
a standard-gauge line was launched in Katowice, which connected the
Market Square in Katowice with Kościuszko Park. At the end of this line,
a standard-gauge depot was built. In the interwar years, the processes
of transforming the network in Katowice into a standard-gauge network
intensified, and on July 14, 1928, a line from Szopienice to Sosnowiec
was launched. After World War II, the line from Kościuszko Park to
Brynów was extended, which was put into operation on September 18, 1947.
After 1989, despite underfunding, the tram network in Katowice was
systematically modernized.
About 30 km north of the center of Katowice, there is the
Katowice-Pyrzowice international airport with an asphalt concrete runway
3,200 meters long and 45 meters wide. In 2015, it served 3 million 069
thousand. passengers. The port has two passenger terminals (the newer
one opened in July 2007), an arrival terminal and one cargo terminal.
The annual throughput of passenger terminals is approx. 6 million.
Pyrzowice Airport serves over 30 regular scheduled connections with LOT,
Lufthansa, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Transavia and Ellnair airlines.
Within the city limits of Katowice, there is also the Katowice-Muchowiec
Aeroclub Airport with an active grass take-off field. It was planned to
be transformed into a city airport with a future paved runway, 850
meters long and 25 meters wide, serving planes carrying up to 18
passengers and general aviation planes, including business planes.
However, currently its development is hampered by ownership disputes
between the flying clubs.
Within 100 km from Katowice, there are
two more international airports: Ostrava Airport and Kraków Airport in
Balice. In addition, the airport in Kamień Śląski near Opole, 90 km away
from Katowice, applied for the status of an airport for scheduled
traffic, including international traffic. Due to its location 12 km from
the A4 motorway, it would be a realistic alternative to Pyrzowice and
Balice, among others. for Katowice – these plans remained unrealized.
In 2013 at ul. Medyków, the Katowice-GCZD sanitary landing pad was
commissioned, and in 2014 at ul. Home Army Famur helicopter landing site
Katowice is characterized by an extensive network of healthcare
facilities, including hospitals. As of 2012, there are 12 public and 6
private hospitals in the city. Among them, the following inpatient
treatment facilities operate here:
Hospitals of the Medical
University of Silesia:
University Clinical Center named after prof.
Kornel Gibiński (ul. Ceglana 35 and ul. Medyków 14),
Independent
Public Clinical Hospital named after Andrzej Mielęcki (ul. Francuska
20-24),
Upper Silesian Children's Health Center named after st. Jana
Pawła II Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 6 (ul. Medyków 16),
Upper Silesian Medical Center named after prof. Leszek Giec (ul. Ziołowa
45-47),
Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation (ul.
Dąbrowskiego 25);
Hospital of the Ministry of the Interior and
Administration (Sergeant Grzegorz Załoga Independent Public Health Care
Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Katowice; ul. Głowackiego
10);
Hospitals founded by the Marshal's Office:
Psychiatry Center
in Katowice (ul. Korczaka 27),
Katowice Cancer Center (ul. Raciborska
27 - Team No. 1; ul. Józefowska 119 - Team No. 2),
District Railway
Hospital (ul. Panewnicka 65);
Other facilities (including non-public
ones):
Hospital st. Elizabeth (ul. Warszawska 52),
Murcki City
Hospital (ul. Sokołowskiego 2),
Geriatric Hospital named after John
Paul II (ul. Morawa 31),
Hospital of the Order of Brothers
Hospitallers Guardian Angels (ul. Markiefki 87),
Specialist Hospital
prof. Emil Michałowski (ul. Strzelecka 9).
In 2012, there were
3,641 hospital beds in Katowice, which gives an average of 118.6 beds
per 10,000 inhabitants. inhabitants. This ratio is more than twice as
high as the average for the entire voivodeship, which at that time was
56.0 beds per 10,000. people. According to data from 2012, the number of
hospitalized in Katowice was 2012 - 2,225 patients per 10,000.
inhabitants. The Provincial Ambulance Service operates in the city,
which has an Ambulance Station in the city at ul. Powstańców 52. The
number of clinics in the same year amounted to 283 facilities, of which
in 2011 6% of clinics were public facilities.
Katowice has a rich educational and scientific base, which includes
kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, post-secondary
schools and universities. Among them, apart from generally accessible
facilities, there are special and integration facilities, and some of
the facilities are grouped into school complexes. In 2007, there were 88
kindergartens in Katowice, including 82 municipal ones, attended by
7,844 children. In Katowice, according to data from 2012, there are 55
primary schools with 1,070 teachers and 13,400 students at that time.
people, which gives an average of 244 students per school and 19
students per class.
In 2012, there were 48 junior high schools in
Katowice attended by 7,000 students. students. This gives an average of
145 people per school and 21 students per class. At that time, 187
students were educated in special departments. In terms of the base of
upper secondary schools in Katowice in 2012, there were:
13
vocational schools attended by 1,025 students,
21 art schools
attended by 4,012 students,
46 comprehensive schools, educating 7,357
students; in 2007, there were 18 general secondary schools in Katowice,
managed by the city, attended by 5,173 students,
56 post-secondary
schools with 7,629 students; among them there are institutions managed
by the voivodeship government (Policealna Województwa Śląskie nr 1 and
2) and the city (6 institutions and 3 post-secondary vocational
studies).
Some of the upper-secondary schools have regional
functions, especially renowned general high schools, technical and
artistic schools, among which, according to the 2013 Perspektywy
ranking, the most prestigious include:
I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im.
Nicolaus Copernicus,
III Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Adam Mickiewicz,
Catholic Secondary School for them. blessed Fr. E. Szramka,
VIII
Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Maria Skłodowska-Curie,
II High School
for them. Maria Konopnicka.
Katowice is one of the largest
scientific centers in Poland. As of 2012, there are 20 universities in
the city, where over 63,000 students studied at that time. people. Among
them, there are 8 public universities. These are:
Academy of Music
Karol Szymanowski in Katowice,
Academy of Physical Education them.
Jerzy Kukuczka,
Academy of Fine Arts,
Silesian University of
Technology, Faculty of Materials Science and Metallurgy, Faculty of
Transport,
Medical University of Silesia,
Economic University,
University of Silesia,
Silesian Theological Seminary.
In the
years 1998–2003, the number of universities in Katowice increased from 5
to 9 institutions, while the number of students was 71,942 in 1998 and
63,099 in 2012. The largest university in terms of the number of
students is the University of Silesia, when in the academic year 2012/13
it was attended by 29,258 people, while the second largest institution
of higher education, the University of Economics, was attended by 13,488
students. Universities in Katowice have an average reputation among
Polish universities (19th place of the University of Silesia in the
Perspektywy ranking for 2012 among public universities and 15th place of
the Wojciech Korfanty Upper Silesian University of Economics among
non-public universities).
According to data from the National
Census of 2011, 23.7% of the surveyed residents have higher education,
35.3% have secondary and post-secondary education, and 19.3% of
residents had basic vocational education. The group of surveyed
inhabitants of Katowice also included people with lower secondary
education (4.3%), primary education (12.7%), and 0.6% of people had no
school education.
Media in Katowice existed from the very beginning of Katowice as a
city. In 1865, his own publishing house was launched, which issued a
local newspaper 2-3 times a week. Until 1900, 4 weeklies, 3 German
monthlies, 1 daily and 2 Polish weeklies were also published in
Katowice.
In the interwar years, Katowice was the center of the
media [style to be improved], represented by the press and the local
Polish Radio station launched in 1927. The most important newspapers
published in the early 20th century and in the interwar years included:
"Gazeta Ludowa", "Gazeta Robotnicza", "Górnoślązak", "Polak" and "Goniec
Śląski". The most important were "Polonia" published from 1924 and
"Polska Zachodnia" from 1926. German-language magazines were also
published – out of 24 German magazines published in the Śląskie
Voivodship, 14 of them were published in Katowice. The reach of the
media in the interwar years was not large, limited mainly to the
Silesian Voivodeship.
After World War II, Polish Radio resumed
its activity, whose share in broadcasting among regional stations in the
period 1945–1989 was decreasing. In 1957, the Silesian Television Center
was launched. In the years of the People's Republic of Poland, the
largest press publishing house was Śląskie Wydawnictwo Prasowe, which
published 17 titles, including 4 dailies: "Trybuna Robotnicza",
"Dziennik Zachodni", "Wieczór i Sport". From the 1950s to the 1990s, the
"Śląsk" Publishing House operated, specializing in Upper Silesian
issues, mainly by publishing prose works. In 1992, the Scientific
Publishing House "Śląsk" was founded.
"Apostolate of the Sick"
"Western Journal"
"Our city"
"Fact"
Katowice
"Gazeta Wyborcza" Katowice
"Sunday Guest"
"Silesia"
"Fair"
"Roździeński Monthly"
"New Miner"
"New Katowice Review"
"Ultramarine"
Anti-radio
Meloradio
Polish Radio Katowice
Radio Egida -
student radio station of the University of Silesia
Radio eM –
archdiocesan radio
Radio Eska Silesia
Radio Zet - local branch
RMF FM - local branch
RMF Maxx Slask
Radio Silesia
TVN24 - regional branch
TVP3 Katowice
TVS television
Numerous cyclical cultural events take place in Katowice (2014),
including:
Ars Independent Festival
Ekosong - Panewniki
Cult
Film Festival
kilOFF Independent Film Festival
New Music Festival
- Culture Zone, Wilson Shaft Gallery
Film Festival "Celluloid, Man,
Number"
Upper Silesian Chamber Art Festival (Ars Cameralis Silesiae
Superioris)
Mayday Festival - Saucer
Metalmania - Saucer
International Graphics Exhibition "Intergrafia"
International
Festival of Military Bands
International Festival of Theaters "A
Part"
International Festival of Puppet Theaters "Katowice for
Children"
International Competition for Conductors G. Fitelberg
Departures - Spodek
Off Festival - Three Ponds Valley
National
Festival of Directing Art "Interpretations"
Rawa Blues Festival -
Saucer
Silesian Jazz Festival
Coal Student Film Festival
Concerts from the series: JaZZ and around
Intel Extreme Masters
In Katowice, the artistic community has a rich tradition, dating back
to 1928. At that time, the Silesian Society of Friends of Fine Arts was
founded, and a year later the Trade Union of Visual Artists in Silesia
was established, which organized its first exhibition in the city. After
World War II, in August 1949, the Contemporary Gallery of the Bureau of
Artistic Exhibitions was established, where individual and group
exhibitions were held. In 1975, 14 exhibition events were organized
there.
There are (2014) the following art galleries in Katowice:
BWA Contemporary Art Gallery – al. Wojciech Korfanty 6
Art Nova 2
Gallery – ul. Dworcowa 13
SARP Architecture Gallery - ul. Dyrekcyjna
9
Ateneum Gallery - ul. May 3, 25
Engram Gallery - pl. Silesian
Parliament 2
Gallery Katowice - ul. Warszawska 5
Galeria Koszarowa
- ul. Koszarowa 17
Galeria Magiel - ul. Rymarska 4
Galeria
Pracownia Renaissance - ul. Mariacka 12/entrance from Stanisława Street
Upstairs Gallery - pl. Silesian Parliament 2
Gallery under the
Ceiling - ul. Rybnicka 11
Empty Gallery - pl. Silesian Parliament 2
Rondo Sztuki Gallery - Rondo im. Gen. J. Ziętka 1
Gallery Sector I -
pl. Silesian Parliament 2
Art Gallery Atelier 2 – ul. Stefan Batory 2
Fra Angelico Gallery - ul. H. Jordana 39
BWA Contemporary Art Gallery
– al. Wojciech Korfanty 6
Parnas Contemporary Art Gallery - ul. Jan
Kochanowski 10
Wilson Shaft Gallery - ul. Liberation 1
AMC ART -
ul. Mariacka 19
Gallery "Antrakt" MDK "Szopienice" - ul. General
Józef Haller 28
Akwarela Gallery - ul. Mikolowska 26
Art-Deco
Gallery - pl. Andrew 4
Marble Gallery - ul. Mikolowska 26
Galeria
Na Francuskiej - ul. French 13
Polonia Art Gallery - ul. Zabrska 5
Kowadło Art Gallery - ul. Juliusz Słowacki 27
Glass Art Gallery - ul.
Stefan Batory 3
The beginnings of physical activity in this region were initiated by
sports societies formed at the end of the 19th century, such as the
"Sokół" Gymnastic Society, Sport Verein and Turn Verein. On March 15,
1896, the "Sokół" Gymnastics Society was established in Katowice, the
second nest of the Polish Gymnastics Society "Sokół" in Silesia after
the Bytom in Upper Silesia. From the beginning, members of the
organization faced persecution by the German authorities. Katowice
members of the organization, who went to Bytom in September 1896 at the
invitation of their friends, were arrested by the German police on a
train. They were soon sued because the German passengers traveling with
them felt offended by their organizational attire.
The oldest
football club in Katowice and the second in Upper Silesia was SV Frisch
Auf Kattowitz, founded in 1904. After its dissolution, three clubs were
founded in 1905: FC Preussen 05 Kattowitz, Diana Kattowitz and Germania
Kattowitz. One of the first football clubs was also 06 Zalenze, founded
in 1906. On December 7, 1930, an artificial ice skating track was opened
in the city. Currently, there are several dozen sports clubs and
associations in Katowice. The most important are:
Silesian Aeroclub;
Silesian Automobile Club;
AZS-AWF Katowice – multi-section club,
four-time Polish fencing champion, numerous other medals of the Polish
Championships;
AZS UŚ Katowice – multi-section club, numerous medals
of the Polish Championships;
GKS Katowice – men's football club,
four-time vice-champion of Poland, three-time winner of the Polish Cup,
two-time winner of the Polish Super Cup, currently in the first league;
HC GKS Katowice – hockey club, 6-time Polish champion, 9-time Polish
vice-champion, 8 times in third place, currently in Ekstraliga;
HETMAN Szopienice – chess club, winner of medals in the Polish
Championships;
HKS Szopienice – multi-section club, numerous medals
in strength sports;
Jango Katowice - futsal club, winner of the
Polish Cup in 2007, finalist of the Polish Cup in 2006, 2 times on the
podium in the first league, currently in the first league;
Katowice
Kyokushin Karate Club - multiple winner of Polish and European
Championship medals and many times voted the best kyokushin karate club
in Poland;
MKS Pałac Młodych Katowice – a multi-section club,
numerous medals of the Polish Junior Championships;
Naprzód Janów
Katowice – men's ice hockey club, 5-time vice-champion of Poland, 7
times in third place, currently in Ekstraliga;
Police Sports Club
Katowice – sports club, 5 titles of the Polish Champion in fencing, 11
titles of the Polish Champion in swimming;
Development Katowice - a
men's football club currently playing in the IV league, gr. Śląska I;
Sokół AZS-AWF Katowice – a volleyball club currently playing in the
Women's II League;
Sparta Katowice – a multi-section sports club, 11
Polish Champion titles in diving (youth categories).
The most
important sports facilities in Katowice include:
Sports and
Entertainment Hall "Spodek" with a main hall for over 11 thousand.
people and an ice rink
Municipal Stadium of GKS Katowice
KS
Murcki–Kostuchna Gornik Stadium
KS Development Stadium
"Podlesianka" Sports Center
"Hetman" Sports Center
"Rapid" soccer
facility
A complex of sports fields and a sports hall at the
"Szopienice" Sports Center
A complex of sports fields and a sports
hall at the "Kolejarz" Sports Center
Athletic stadium of the Academy
of Physical Education
"Słowian" Sports Center
Sports hall
"Józefowska"
"Jantor" ice rink
7 indoor swimming pools with a
basin 25 m long
recreational complex Dolina 3 Stawów with a swimming
pond
The "Bugla" swimming pool - a complex of 5 swimming pools with a
stainless steel basin (2 deep pools (1.6m-2.3m), swimming pool for
children (0.3m-1.2m), paddling pool, slide, Jacuzzi for 70 people,
pitches)
The "Rolna" swimming pool - an open swimming pool, in the
summer season there is a deep swimming pool, a paddling pool for
children and a slide.
The city bike in Katowice debuted in 2015. At the beginning,
residents had three stations at their disposal, a year later 11, and in
2017 there were 35 of them.
In addition to the development of the
city bike network in Katowice, large funds are invested in the
development of bicycle infrastructure - including the construction of
new bicycle routes. In recent years, 15.5 km of new bicycle routes have
been built in Katowice, and 58 km of routes have been modernized.
The most important position in the executive authorities of Katowice
was called variously over the years: in the years 1866–1920 and
1939–1945 they were called Oberbürgermeister, in the interwar period
(1922–1939) and the first years after the war (1945–1950) they were
called mayors of the city, and from March 24, 1950 to January 1, 1974,
they were called city council presidents. From January 1, 1974, the term
president of the city was returned, which is still used today.
The penultimate mayor of the village was Kazimierz Skiba, whose cottage,
now transferred to the open-air museum, stood on the outskirts of the
village of Katowice, near the border of the village of Bogucice, in the
part later called Drajok. The last mayor was a certain Ludwik Troll.
Since obtaining city rights by Katowice in 1865, the city had 23
presidents. The first mayor of Katowice was Louis Diebel, who took
office on May 14, 1866, becoming the mayor of the city, which then had
4,815 inhabitants and covered an area similar to today's downtown
Katowice. The current mayor of Katowice is Marcin Krupa, and his
deputies are Mariusz Skiba, Waldemar Bojarun, Bogumił Sobula and Jerzy
Woźniak.
On March 3 and April 4, 1866, the first elections to the body that
established the authorities of Katowice took place. From 342 candidates,
the first 18 representatives (Stadtverordneten) of the inhabitants of
the city were elected. These representatives, under the leadership of
the chairman of the election committee, Dr. Richard Holtze, elected the
first magistrate (Magistratskollegium) on May 14, 1866, which consisted
of:
the first mayor of Katowice - Louis Diebel from Krapkowice (ger.
Krappitz)
deputy mayor - Rossei
4 permanent town councilors who
were titled Ratsherr from 1873
The number of councilors was
increased to 6 in 1875 and they were called Stadträte.
Currently,
the chairman of the city council is Maciej Biskupski, and it consists of
28 directly elected councillors. Since 2002, the mayor of Katowice has
been elected by the inhabitants. The official seat of the Katowice City
Hall is the magistrate at ul. Młyńska 4 in the Śródmieście
district[199].
The City Council confers the title of Honorary
Citizen of the City of Katowice, which has so far been awarded to 15
people (as of January 2012). Katowice is the seat of the Upper Silesian
Metropolitan Union and a member of the Union of Polish Metropolises. By
resolution of the council of June 22, 2009, September 11 was established
as a city holiday.
By the resolution of the Katowice City Council of November 30, 2011,
the Youth City Council of Katowice was established, which plays a
consultative role towards the City Council.
Youth Councilors
being elected by secondary school students (one mandate of a Youth
Councilor for every 500 students) work socially: developing and
disseminating the ideas of self-government among young people; initiate,
support and coordinate youth self-government activities; shape
pro-social, civic, democratic and patriotic attitudes; represent the
interests of young people towards public and non-governmental
institutions, help prepare young people for active functioning on the
labor market; integrate the cooperation of youth communities in the
city; they ensure the active participation of young people in the life
of the city and inspire young people to participate in cultural
development.
Katowice is the seat of the Katowice Archdiocese and the Katowice
metropolis. There are five deaneries in Katowice: Katowice-Bogucice,
Katowice-Panewniki, Katowice-Piotrowice, Katowice-Śródmieście and
Katowice-Załęże. The parish network includes a total of 38 municipal
parishes. According to the data provided by the official publications of
the archdiocesan curia, Katowice is inhabited by 295,560 Catholics,
which is nearly 97 percent of the city's population.
There are 36
churches in the city and 18 religious congregations of the Roman
Catholic Church have their monasteries, including as many as five
provincial houses (Franciscans, Jadwiga Sisters, Elizabethans, Silesian
Servants and Virgin Mary). In the city there is a minor basilica of St.
st. Ludwik Król and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the
Franciscan monastery complex in Panewniki. A sanctuary known in Upper
Silesia, next to Kalwaria Panewnicka, is the Basilica of St. Stephen in
Bogucice with the miraculous image of Our Lady of Bogucice.
Katowice is home to two higher diocesan and monastic seminaries, the
Catholic publishing house Księgarnia św. Jacek, printing house,
editorial offices of the archdiocesan radio station Radio eM, the
nationwide Catholic weekly Gość Niedzielny, the monthly for children and
youth Mały Gość Niedzielny and the monthly Apostolstwo Sick. Near the
metropolitan curia there is the Caritas Headquarters of the Archdiocese
of Katowice. There are also several centers of academic chaplaincy in
Katowice, e.g. Academic Church in the crypt of the Cathedral of Christ
the King and FODA in Panewniki.
Katowice is the seat of the Katowice diocese of the
Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. There are two Lutheran parishes
in the city:
Evangelical-Augsburg parish in Katowice
Evangelical-Augsburg parish in Katowice-Szopienice
Other Protestant
churches are also active in Katowice:
Evangelical Christian
Community:
Katowice-Chorzow branch
Evangelical Christian
Church:
parish in Katowice
Seventh-day Adventist Church
church
in Katowice
Seventh-day Adventist Church Reform Movement:
church
in Katowice
Church of God in Poland:
Christian Church "New
Generation"
Christian Church "New Hope"
Church of God in
Christ:
Community of Redeemed Christians in Katowice (outpost of the
community of Redeemed Christians in Krakow)
Church of Christ in
Poland:
Christian community in Katowice
Baptist Church in
Poland:
I Congregation of the Baptist Christian Church
II
Congregation of the Baptist Church "Opoka"
Evangelical-Methodist
Church in Poland:
New Covenant Parish
Evangelical Reformed Church
in Poland:
a diasporic group, the Reformed Evangelicals from Katowice
are provided with pastoral care by the Evangelical-Augsburg parish.
Church of Evangelical Christians in Poland:
church in Katowice
Church of Free Christians in Poland:
church in Katowice
Pentecostal Church in Poland:
Bethany Congregation
the "Heart of
the Metropolis" congregation
Messianic Assemblies of God:
mission point in Katowice
William Branham Movement:
Gospel of
Grace Congregation.
Association of Christian Churches in Poland:
Congregation of Christians
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Commune of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Katowice
Jehovah's
Witnesses - 14 congregations (English, Bogucice, Brynów, Centrum
(including a Ukrainian-speaking group), Giszowiec, Ligota, Migowy,
Piotrowice, Russian, Ukrainian, Wełnowiec, East, West, Zawodzie);
Kingdom Hall complexes: ul. Nadgórników 9, ul. Liberation 4a.
Secular
Missionary Movement "Epifania" - a congregation in Katowice
Jewish Religious Community in Katowice
The first Jewish community
in Katowice was established in 1866. Until World War II, it existed in
the city at ul. A. Mickiewicz, the Great Synagogue, built in an eclectic
Moorish-neo-Roman style. The current synagogue is located in the
building of the Jewish Religious Community at 13 Młyńska Street.
According to the findings from January 2011, there were as many as three
synagogues in Katowice.
Muslim League in Poland – Center for Islamic Culture in Katowice (Silesian Branch of the Muslim League in Poland)
Karma Kagyu Lineage Diamond Way Buddhist Association
Zen Kwan Um
School in Poland - center in Katowice
Sangha "Dogen Zenji" - Sho Gyo
Ji center in Katowice
Benchen Karma Kamtsang Buddhist Association –
Benchen Karma Kamtsang Katowice
International Society for Krishna Consciousness - local center in
Katowice
New Religious Movements
Lectorium Rosicrucianum -
Katowice Center